Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Perhaps the 2024-25 AHL season ends with the Milwaukee Admirals lifting the Calder Cup.
Or maybe a successful regular season quickly falls apart once the Calder Cup Playoffs begin, and the Admirals go home in peace. Even if the Admirals miss the postseason entirely.
Nothing is guaranteed, the Admirals head coach Karl Taylor he presses his club. Milwaukee went to the Western Conference finals the last two seasons, but that means little now.
In 2018, Taylor served as an assistant coach with the Texas Stars when they took on the powerhouse Toronto Marlies in Game 7 of the Calder Cup Finals. A year later, the Stars missed the playoffs.
Most recently, Taylor’s Admirals won 19 games in a row last season, the second longest such streak in AHL history. They then lost nine of their next 11 games. Fortunes change quickly in this league. Nothing is guaranteed. Even for the Admirals, a franchise that has won seven division titles and reached the Calder Cup Playoffs 18 times in 21 attempts since arriving in the AHL.
“You learn when you’re a young coach – you think you’ve established things and you can move forward every season – there’s a need to re-establish this practice, all the good things you’ve had over the years,” said Taylor. “If you don’t start from the first step, it doesn’t go well.
“This is a new team. Even the way the returning players react to the new players, that’s a new process for everybody.”
However, the Admirals were able to win while starting to put together what they hope will be a successful ownership. Since being shut out by Grand Rapids on opening night, Milwaukee has reeled off eight straight wins, including a two-game sweep of Manitoba this weekend.
The new look of the Admirals roster in 2024-25 started with a new tandem netting in the back Yaroslav Askarov faced San Jose again Troy Grosenick signed with Minnesota. Magnus Chrono it was part of the Sharks’ comeback, too Matt Murraya common opponent in their Central Division rivalry with Texas, came after two seasons in the Dallas organization. Both Chrona (2022, Denver) and Murray (2021, UMass) won national championships in college.
The one that went forward Zach L’Heureuxwho had a breakout season last season with 10 goals in 15 games for the Admirals, started the season in Milwaukee but quickly became eligible for a promotion to Nashville. The 21-year-old, a 2021 first-round pick, has two assists in six games with the Predators, and the Admirals can’t count on him returning to Milwaukee at this point. Phil Tomasino, Marc Del Gaizo, Juuso Parssinen, Spencer Stastney again Mark Jankowski they are from nashville again.
But the first round draft Joakim Kemell, Fedor Svechkov, Reid Schaefer again Ozzy Wiesblatt are back after getting a long playoff run in 2024, and the Predators are making sure to fill Taylor’s roster with proven players. Kieffer Bellows, Nick Blankenburg, Jake Lucchini again Vinnie Hinostroza16 points in nine games leads the entire AHL.
The pressure is still on for Nashville to win — as evidenced by the offseason additions Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault again Brady Skjei – and anything that affects the NHL’s parent team affects the AHL-owned organization. With a partnership dating back to Nashville’s 1998-99 expansion season, the Admirals understand that fact.
“For us, the returning players know how we operate, what we expect here, and how we run our business on and off the ice,” said Taylor. “Or what Nashville expects from our Milwaukee Admirals. Returning players know what the staff expects each day. I think that helps set the culture.
“Every year we play, we hope to have a chance to win the Calder Cup.”
Taylor was there. You know the Calder Cup Playoffs are a long way off. That gives him time to work out how he wants his team to play, but it’s also indicative of how any team will fare in the regular season — not to mention the Calder Cup battle that could take another two months. Playing in June, as the Admirals have done the past two years, will take another sustained effort, and that work starts long before spring arrives.
Said Taylor, “No guarantees, right?”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
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